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Antivirus Support
General Virus
Information
With the “always-on”
connections to the Internet growing exponentially across
the world, concerns over Internet security are ten times
what they were a year ago. Over the past year, we have
seen the development of worms and viruses that can
infiltrate a computer without a person ever knowing it
was there. These viruses and worms can cause many
serious problems and security risks. We have created
this site to help our customers understand the threat
these viruses impose and how to take actions to protect
themselves. First, one must understand the different
kinds of viruses that are out there.
Virus
- The term “virus” generally covers anything that
infects your system. However, a true virus is one that
replicates itself to other programs on your system. In
doing so, it may cause serious damage to critical files
or try to corrupt a computer’s memory. A virus does not
necessarily have to do any damage but most are
programmed to. Some can even lay dormant for years
before finally activating.
Trojan horse
- This is a type of virus that leaves a “back door” open
on your system that allows others to connect to it.
These kinds of viruses are a major security risk.
Whoever connects to your computer using a Trojan Horse
has access to all data that is stored on your hard
drive, can monitor keystrokes entered by users (thus
obtaining bank account numbers and passwords), and they
can use your machine to do any number of actions
including sending email or store data.
Worm
- A worm is a virus that travels across the Internet
infecting other systems. Once it infects another system,
a worm will then look for other computers to infect and
so on until it is out of control. These kinds of viruses
will also do what the other two do. They will leave back
doors open and infect critical files. Worms are among
the most destructive and hard to remove viruses on the
Internet. Also, because of their replicating nature,
they cause Internet speeds to slow down. They utilize a
large amount of a user’s Internet connection to spread
themselves causing slow speeds.
Spyware
- Spyware is not necessarily a virus, but it can be just
as damaging to a computer system. Spyware comes in a
variety of “shapes and sizes”. Generally speaking,
spyware is installed from websites you have visited that
execute code on your system or install programs that
allow others to track where you’ve been on the web, what
you are currently viewing, and major system statistics.
Malicious spyware will infect your system much like a
worm or virus and cause performance slow-downs as well
as allow others to access your system like a Trojan
horse. Pop-up ads are a major symptom of being infected
with spyware.
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